Gallery Whispers

68

'You know what I'd love to do, Mario?' Maggie asked, wistfully.

'Scratch your bum with your right hand?' her husband suggested.

She smiled at him. 'That's true, but it's not what I was thinking.

No, I was thinking that I'd love to start all over again, chuck the police and become a social worker.'

'What the hell brought that on?' he retorted.

She nodded towards the pile of folders on their small dining table.

'Can't you guess? It's this job that I'm doing for Andy Martin. When I said I'd take it on, I didn't appreciate what it would be like. I've spent the day reading my way through a whole succession of private hells that have passed for people's lives.

'Those Fiscal's Reports over there, they've got stories in them that would tear your heart out. With the odd exception — like a father who hanged himself after he was caught abusing his daughters — every person in there is a victim of one sort or another. There are people who were hounded to death by bad neighbours, people who were allowed to run up ridiculous amounts of debt by shops and credit card companies, people who over-reached themselves in business simply trying to fulfil the promises they had made to their families, people who were driven to it by loneliness, and people who were just plain depressed.

'Suicide is a significant cause of death among people of all ages, and as far as I can see every one of them is preventable.'

Mario frowned. 'I don't know if I'd have wanted to prevent that father you mentioned from topping himself.'

'Of course you would, if you could have done it by preventing the abuse through better family support. All these people needed someone who just wasn't there when it mattered the most. It just made me feel that I'm in the wrong job. Far more people want to be police officers than social workers, and the effect of that's showing over there on our table.'

He reached out a thick hand, and rubbed the back of her neck, gently, kneading the muscles, soothing the tension that he felt there.

'Listen, darlin" he said. 'You are a social worker; so am I. We're both of us doing jobs that benefit society. Okay, on some days the benefit might be more apparent than others, but you've got to take the long view.

'Look at me today: I spent it stuck in a converted bloody gym, vetting security men and journalists. Yet because of what my team did, the world's leaders are going to feel a bit safer when they're in our care next month. Look at you, and that arm; your injury wasn't for nothing. Through it you've rid society of a wicked, vicious man who'd killed one woman and was living off another in the worst possible way.

'Sure, there are more boys and girls who want to join the polis and strut up and down in the paramilitary uniform than there are those who want to be social workers and work with the poor and needy. But it's a bloody sight harder to recruit a really good copper than it is to recruit for a profession which is far more of a vocation, and where just about everyone comes through the door with stars in their eyes and bursting to do good.'

He turned her face towards him. 'You'd be a good social worker, Mags; there's no doubt about that. But you're an outstanding copper, and for my money that makes you even more valuable to society.'

Blushing slightly, she grinned at him. 'You're not so bad yourself.'

'I know that. I'm a good officer, but I'm not as good as you. Better in a rough-house maybe, but you're brighter than me; you see things that I don't.'

'I'll tell you one thing, McGuire,' she said. 'I can see that within that hard-man exterior'

'There lies a sensitive soul?' he laughed.

'You? You're as sensitive as a wrecking ball. Your hard man pal, Neil, now he's sensitive, but you… What I was going to say was that you're the most sensible man I know. You never get flustered, you're always controlled, and you always do the right thing. You've still got a lot to do in this force.'

'There are people in the queue ahead of me. There's you for a start, and there's Brian.'

'Count me out. My next billet will be something specialist like drugs; plus, we are going to have kids sometime in the next five years. As for Brian, he's good but he's peaked. You've still got the potential to wear a lot of silver on your uniform.'

'Have I told you lately that I love you?' he murmured, oddly embarrassed for a moment. 'Okay,' he said, 'that's Neil, Mackie and me assessed: sensitive, peaked and sensible. How about the Big Man?

I know how hard he is; I've seen him in action. How would you describe his inner man?'

'The boss? He's different. He's got an amazing mind for a start; he's a brilliant analyst, volatile, unpredictable. But inside? I don't know. Other than Sarah, I doubt if anyone knows what he's really like deep down. I'll tell you this though; there's something about him that frightens me.'

He looked at her, his expression sombre. The too,' he said.

Shifting his position beside her he looked back towards the table.

'What about that lot?' he asked. 'Any possible matches for these other two deaths?'

Maggie shook her head. 'Not yet. But I have to look at every detail of every folder very carefully — and there are about three hundred of them. I've got a way to go yet.'